HD Radio and live sporting events

Given that I'm a johnny-come-lately to HD listening, I was initially surprised to see stations turning off HD during sporting events, such as baseball games. I couldn't think of any good reason (is there?) that live sports couldn't be broadcast on HD Radio.

Then it dawned on me that it appears this is happening because the 7 seconds of delay or so would somehow make the broadcast "not live". If this is really what's going on, I don't get it. Anyone who watches sports on TV through a DVR is already experiencing a variable delay, so why the difference on HD Radio?

There's obviously ways to get remote talent a live monitor feed, so that can't be it.

Am I missing something here? Is this really simply to cater to listeners who might actually be at the games? Again, if delay is OK for DVR viewing, why is it not ok for HD Radio?

I think I will write a note to WCBS and WFAN about this. When you think about it, having a delay if you're at a game might even be MORE useful. Why? Because crowd noise during something important might drown out the announcer's voice, anyway, whereas if you heard the slightly-delayed play-by-play, you could get more details as the crowd noise diminishes.

Whatever; it seems like a silly reason to cater to the smaller crowd of people actually at a game (and even smaller of those actually listening while there) rather than the majority of listeners nowhere near the action.

Once these well-meaning programmer types get the DVR comparison (not recorded DVR, but buffered live DVR), they really won't have a good comeback.

I respect your opinion, but I do have news for you. I've had much more than one second delays on Time Warner DVR's. And the point is that who in a car would possibly care if they were hearing a game 7 seconds delayed?

I've worked at AM stations (many moons ago!) that were always in delay due to the amount of talk programming they had going on. So, sports were included.

A quick Google check shows that listening to delayed sports is certainly not without precedent. The "Motor Racing Network" recently instituted a seven second delay:

"MRN goes to a 7-second Delay: the Motor Racing Network (MRN), the nation's largest independent sports radio network, announced today that it will institute a seven-second audio delay in its NASCAR coverage, beginning with Sunday's Banquet 400 Nextel Cup race at Kansas Speedway"

They did so out of concerns about FCC fines, etc., for language during live events.

So, for anyone at a Nascar event listing to MRN, they're seven seconds off, at least. And in Nascar, seven seconds is an eternity!

To me, it's silly. If you want to promote HD, go HD, not halfway.

Thanks, DrDon. But if that's the case, there are other options. Since HD transmission is being considered a lower priority in this instance (which, as I've mentioned, seems to definitely cater to the minority at the stadium!), a station could always toggle OFF its analog/digital sync, right? In other words, simply let analog go out live with no compensating delay, and HD go out normally. That would be a PITA to HD listeners in a fringe area with blending issues, but again, it seems this is a programming decision based on providing favor to analog listeners. At least HD listeners would still have an option this way. And, as Sangean has shown, it's not hard to incorporate "analog-only" into HD radios as an option. I'm sure that will show up as a standard feature at some point on HD radios, preferably as a faceplate button.

To me, it's just another way terrestrial broadcasters seem to take two steps forward and one back when promoting something new. You're out there plugging HD radio in all its glory, and some Joe Schmoe who's not in the industry turns on a game in the car and is wondering why it's the same old analog quality AM sound. You lose all the station-ID texting services as well. Reminds me of the AM-Stereo days fiasco, with all the competing standards, and then AMAX...boy, that went well. I just think it's well-intentioned but poor programming for HD's sake.

Yeah, I guess I did oversimplify that. But when you think about it, going all analog and toggling OFF an HD exciter is essentially doing most of this already, no? I would think that you would be ramping down the analog delay (slowly) to go live. And when you toggle HD back on, I would think it would be necessary to slowly ramp up the analog delay so it still sounds natural to analog listeners.

Anyway, I'm not fighting you on this from a technical perspective. My issues are with the programming decisions. Thanks for chiming in.

I think you would be running into possible broadcast rights issues there. I should say at this point that I wrote to WCBS 880 to ask why they toggled OFF HD during baseball games.

The answer I got was:

A: "The FCC doesn't allow AM broadcasting in HD at night." (wrong...this is now allowed)

B: "MLB doesn't permit its games to be broadcast in HD, as its technically a separate distribution channel."

I'm very suspicious of the B: reason. I could only see MLB complaining about HD broadcasting if WCBS were simulcasted as an HD-2 signal on an FM station's HD signal. There is one station here in NYC that does that. WINS (1010 AM) is simulcasted on HD-2 of the 102.7 FM HD transmission. In that sense, yes, that would be a separate distribution channel. But WCBS in violation of carriage rights when in HD mode on a single carrier frequency of 880 AM? That's a stretch!

Using that argument, all of the AFTRA artists would be demanding extra residuals for any commercials aired in HD mode. Somehow I don't think that's the case. Correct me if I'm wrong on that.

Thanks for reporting that, Mike. That's exactly what I suggested above. Glad to see some station is smart enough to cater to everyone in that case.

I should have been more specific. The jist of what I got in an email was that the person writing had no idea that the FCC has ruled in favor of AM HD at night, and it's now just a bureaucratic issue of getting the ruling in the Federal Register. Kind of odd that something that was decided upon around May 23 still hasn't shown up, given that more timely events have made it into the Register from the FCC. Our government at work, I guess.